Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Gurgaon has the third-highest per capita income in India after Chandigarh and Mumbai. Gurgaon is also the only Indian city to have successfully distributed electricity connections to all its households.

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Chengdu is becoming one of the favourite cities for investment in western China. Among the world's 500 largest companies, 133 multinational enterprises have had subsidiaries or branch offices in Chengdu by October 2009.

These MNEs include Intel, Cisco, Sony and Toyota that have assembly and manufacturing bases, as well as Motorola, Ericsson, and Microsoft that have R&D centres in Chengdu.

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Image: A welder works outside a building in downtown Chengdu.Photographs: China Photos/Reuters

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities in China. Administratively, it is one of the four direct-controlled municipalities (the other three are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin), and the only such municipality in inland China.

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Image: A man steers his small boat past a bridge on the Yangtze River near the city of Wanzhou in the Chongqing municipality in the south-west part of China.Photographs: David Gray/Reuters

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Moscow is the undisputed financial centre of Russia and home to the country's largest banks and many of its largest companies, such as Russia's largest company Gazprom. Moscow accounts for 17 per cent of retail sales in Russia and for 13 per cent of all construction activity.

Since the 1998 Russian financial crisis, various business sectors in Moscow have shown exponential rates of growth.

Many new business centres and office buildings have been built in recent years, but Moscow still experiences shortages in office space.

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Image: People cross a road, with the Vostok or East tower, part of the Federation complex in the 'Moscow City' business district, seen in the background in Moscow.Photographs: Denis Sinyakov/Reuters

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 657,424 inhabitants, Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population.

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Image: A general view of the Doma church and the Riga suspension bridge in Riga.Photographs: Ints Kalnins/Reuters

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans.

Its name in English translates to White city. The city proper has a population of over 1.1 million, while its metropolitan area has over 1.6 million people, making it one of the largest cities in Southeast Europe.

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Image: Serbian Parliament building is seen before Earth Hour in Belgrade.Photographs: Marko Djurica/Reuters

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

The economy in the city proper alone, measured by Gross Geographic Product (adjusted for purchasing power), totalled $84.7 billion ($34,200 per capita) in 2011 and amounts to nearly a quarter of Argentina's as a whole.

Metro Buenos Aires, according to one well-quoted study, constitutes the 13th-largest economy among the world's cities.

The Buenos Aires Human Development Index is likewise high by international standards.

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

As the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo is the economic and political centre of the country. Most of the largest and wealthiest businesses in Uruguay have their headquarters in the city.

Since the 1990s the city has undergone rapid economic development and modernization, including two of Uruguay's most important buildings - the World Trade Center Montevideo (1998), and Telecommunications Tower (2000), the headquarters of Uruguay's government-owned telecommunications company Antel, increasing the city's integration into the global marketplace.

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Image: A gaucho is thrown off an untamed horse during the Patria Gaucha Festival in Tacuarembo, 400km north of Montevideo.Photographs: Andres Stapff/Reuters

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Panama City is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of Panama.

The city is the political and administrative centre of the country, and a hub for international banking and commerce.

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

Being the economic and financial centre of the country, Panama City's economy is service-based, heavily weighted toward banking, commerce, and tourism.

The economy is dependent, to a significant extent, on trade and shipping activities, associated to the Panama Canal, and port facilities located in Balboa.

The city has benefited from significant economic growth in the latest years, mainly due to the ongoing expansion of the Panama Canal, an increase in real estate investment, and a relatively stable banking sector.

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

The economic activities in Addis Ababa are diverse. According to official statistics from the federal government, some 119,197 people in the city are engaged in trade and commerce; 113,977 in manufacturing and industry; 80,391 homemakers of different variety; 71,186 in civil administration; 50,538 in transport and communication; 42,514 in education, health and social services; 32,685 in hotel and catering services; and 16,602 in agriculture.

Two Indian cities among future business hubs of the world

The city has recently been in a construction boom with tall buildings rising in many places. Various luxury services have also become available and the construction of shopping malls has recently increased.

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Image: People work at the 'packhouse' where flowers are de-leafed and boxed for export, in Addis Ababa.Photographs: Stringer/Reuters